The hellscape known as the Coronavirus pandemic was just a “warning shot” of worse things to come, experts have claimed.

And Dr Steve Davies said another pandemic is actually “inevitable”. A new book penned for the Institute of Economic Affairs, called Apocalypse Next (out today), says the likes of nuclear war, artificial intelligence, or future pandemics severely threaten our planet.

And the book sets out a hopeful vision of how the world can better prepare, relying on the talents and ingenuity of individuals. The claims of the pandemic being a warning shot, with another being “inevitable”, are contained within the book.

And author Dr Davies, a senior education fellow at the IEA, says risks should be identified “to see where innovation is needed to head them off or mitigate their impact; we should think of risk and uncertainty as opportunities rather than just as challenges or problems”.

He said: “Global catastrophic risks are something we should all take seriously – not in the sense of worrying about them constantly but by taking measures to either prevent them or to lessen their impact should they come to pass. Doing this raises questions of costs and trade-offs, which is why you need input from economists.

“We should think of the chances of a globally catastrophic event happening as a long-odds bet but with an infinite or near-infinite cost should it happen. No sensible person should take some of the odds involved, and taking out ‘insurance’ is the right thing to do.”

And Mr Clougerty, the IEA’s executive director, warned the world’s leaders appear not to have learned anything from the pandemic – despite the never-ending inquiry.

He warned: “The Covid-19 pandemic should have led to a new and better understanding of risk among policymakers, but so far that doesn’t seem to have happened. In this context. Steve’s new book is an important contribution to the debate around global catastrophic risks.

“The big insight here is that economic analysis is absolutely central to determining the right response to the various risks we as a civilisation face. Doing nothing about potentially catastrophic risks would be a scandalous abdication of responsibility; but that doesn’t mean we should just do anything.”

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